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| Our shipboard friends |
For something different we went on a cruise to the South Pacific and had Christmas lunch at sea. Now home again, safe and well, to finish off this post and think about the coming year.
Saying goodbye to our shipboard mates was hard.
Blogs
Because I stayed focused this year (following Thomas MacEntee's Do Over program) I achieved a lot with my family history. Tidying up files and citations, correcting inconsistencies, making new discoveries and getting ever closer to publishing those family history drafts that have been hanging around for decades.
That was a long way of saying that I will be participating in Jill Ball's Accentuate the Positive geneameme for 2025. With her prompts it is a chance to reflect on our family history achievements for the year. I have made a start and given myself the deadline of New Year's Eve. Stay tuned. It's been an amazing research year.
Books/Genealogy magazines
Trying to prioritise which books I want to get read over the Christmas/New Year break. Also mindful that I need to finalise my literature review for my Ph D thesis on incarcerated women in colonial Queensland. Most of those are a bit heavy for bedtime reading so I definitely need to have a few fiction books on hand
I also don't mind flicking through genealogy magazines at night although sometimes the temptation to get up out of bed to look at something is strong. To avoid that I keep a pen and notebook beside the bed and write down what to follow up in the morning. The trick is to make sure I am not too cryptic or I won't remember the next day.
Photographs
Just this month a second cousin on my Dad's father's side of the family sent me a photo of Dad's father as a young man. As I have never seen a photo of him I was thrilled but on opening up the image, all I could think of was 'that's where Dad got his ears from'. It's not the sharpest image, but still lets me see who he was. Can't wait to show my brother when we get together after Christmas.
Resources
I think the only way I am going to keep up with new resources is to set calendar dates with myself to go in and search the what's new section on various websites at least once or twice a year. Even Trove this year has turned up new references to my families with new papers digitised. I had a major breakthrough with one of my incarcerated women because someone had changed an entry in FindAGrave. If I hadn't been rechecking everything I would never have discovered it. Research can be very fluid.
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| Visited the old penal settlement on Noumea |
Talks
My first talk for 2026 is in January and it is a case study of using MyHeritage's Theories of Family Relativity to sort my Mum's DNA matches. Not something I have looked at closely before but in preparing my slides I am discovering some interesting matches. Or at least working out which family line the matches might belong to. Register here for free.
My 2026 talks are on the Events page of my website and I am still adding some as details are finalised.
Just noticed that my security certificate is not working despite the fact that I paid it back in October. Hopefully my supplier can solve the issue quickly.
Webinars
Legacy Family Tree Webinars have announced their 2026 program of topics and speakers. Membership makes a great Christmas/New Year present and is definitely good value or you can try and watch the webinar live or within a week to see it for free.
I have two talks in 2026 - one in January (see above) and the other in September on researching in Western Australia.
What's Coming Up
Reflection on what I have managed to achieve with my family research this year and what I would like to continue tidying up in 2026. Not to mention learning some new skills especially around the use of AI for genealogy.
I hope that everyone has had an enjoyable time with family and friends in December and wishing you all a safe and happy New Year in 2026.
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